Cranston teen has gift for giving

Since he was 11, Nicholas Lowinger and his foundation have distributed 7,600 pairs of shoes, sneakers or boots nationwide, with the help of more than 1,000 volunteers.

Donita Naylor Journal Staff Writer donita22

CRANSTON, R.I. -- Nicholas Lowinger had a big day on Oct. 27, when 75 people came to his house in Cranston to help pack 450 pairs of new shoes for children in homeless shelters.

The 15-year-old freshman at the Wheeler School in Providence also had a big day on Dec. 9, when he was invited to help movie star and Boston native Mark Wahlberg give Timberland boots and Puma shoes to 240 needy Boston-area children.

Lowinger has had other big days, such as Nov. 27, when he appeared on the "Today" show and met the "American Idol" 11th season winner, Phillip Phillips, but he's going to have an even bigger week in early March.

The young man who formed the Gotta Have Sole Foundation when he was 11 years old is one of 30 teens from around the globe chosen for the charities they started. When they gather in New York City March 9 to 15, they will become the Three Dot Dash Just Peace Summit.

Three Dot Dash gets its name from the peace sign made with two fingers, which is also the letter V, and V in Morse code is three dots and a dash. Each of the 30 young philanthropists at the peace summit will learn from each other and from experts in the skills needed, as the website says, "to further their work and amplify their messages globally."

Each teen leader will also get a mentor for a year and a stipend to help his or her organization.

"To be in the presence of people who have the same kindheartedness, the same passion for helping other people, it's just … it's amazing," Lowinger said last week.

Since he was 11, Lowinger and his foundation have distributed 7,600 pairs of shoes, sneakers or boots nationwide, with the help of more than 1,000 volunteers.

"Kids can actually go and make a difference in the world," he said. "I'm going to be in the presence of these kids who are making a difference around the world."

He will meet teens who have started charities to create jobs for youth in Egypt, empower girls in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, link farmers in India to weather information and markets, turn ideas into enterprises in Uganda and develop a 3-cent paper sensor that detects pancreatic, ovarian and lung cancers.

Lowinger has wanted children in homeless shelters to have new shoes since he was 5 and his mother started taking him on art therapy visits.

"She wanted me to see how other people were living," he said.

Noticing children without shoes, or with duct tape holding their shoes together, or who had sores on their feet from wearing shoes that didn't fit, he gathered up his outgrown footwear to give away at the shelter.

"It just blew my mind that something I take for granted - having shoes that were new and fit my feet - that a lot of people in the shelters didn't have that luxury."

He describes his initial motivation and continuing satisfaction: "I saw that I could do something," he said. "I could go and I could help these kids feel better about themselves and make them see that there is good in the world and that people actually care about them."

People may think a homeless person would be happy even with "a pair of shoes in deplorable condition," said Lowinger, who actually does use words like deplorable. Saying he likes to argue and plans to be a lawyer, Lowinger offers an argument: "They're kids. They have dignity. They're not going to put things on their feet that are disgusting."

New shoes are important, he said. "Kids can break them into their own feet." New shoes add to self-esteem and can help a student's attendance, participation in sports and after-school activities.

He remembers a sister and brother at a Rhode Island shelter who took turns going to school because they had to share a pair of sneakers.

Before he and his family take a vacation, he said, they call shelters near their destination to get the children's shoe sizes. He finds shoes in the inventory stored in his garage or buys them using money donated to the foundation, which is a 501(c)3 organization. As often as possible, he likes to deliver the shoes himself, but the foundation is set up to help students in other states help children in shelters near them.

Lowinger has plans for two more charities: to equip needy children with sports footwear and to provide shoes for veterans and their families.

Lowinger said he wants to encourage people to find their passion and take action. Unless you "actually take that first step to go ahead and do it," he said, "it's not going to make a difference."